Portable terminals have become necessities of modern life for people of all ages. Thus, service providers and terminal manufacturers are competitively developing differentiated products (or services).
For example, the portable terminal has developed into a multimedia device capable of providing various services such as phonebooks, games, short messages, e-mails, wake-up calls, MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 (MP3) players, digital cameras, and wireless Internet services.
In addition to the aforementioned functions, recently launched portable terminals provide an additional function using an operation detector.
Examples of the additional function using the operation detector include a beat-box, a dice, a passometer, a telephone dial, and the like. The additional function provides a user with great pleasure by using a motion detection function which operates by detecting a user's motion.
Taking a dice function for example among the examples of the additional function using the operation function, when the user of the portable terminal shakes the terminal in a certain direction, a dice displayed on a screen of the portable terminal rotates and thus the user can have the same effect and fun as if the user directly rolls the dice.
The additional function using the operation detector uses an acceleration sensor or a gyroscope sensor to detect a user's gesture, but cannot correctly detect the user's gesture when the user of the portable terminal is in motion or moves.
Therefore, when the user makes a gesture while moving, the portable terminal cannot correctly detect the user's gesture and thus the motion detection function deteriorates in performance.
In addition, when the same motion as a gesture for motion detection occurs while the user of the portable terminal moves, the portable terminal recognizes the motion as the gesture for motion detection even if the user does not intend to perform the motion detection function, and as a result, an unnecessary operation may be performed.
Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus and method for a portable terminal capable of correctly recognizing gestures even in a state where a user moves.